


Drowning

by MrMeowzIII



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Subnautica (Video Game)
Genre: Character Death, Crossover, Established Relationship, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Kharaa Bacterium (Subnautica), M/M, Major Character Injury, Minor Character Death, Ocean, POV Multiple, Sickness, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:01:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27410863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrMeowzIII/pseuds/MrMeowzIII
Summary: In an alternate universe, a crew of Pokémon are sent to build a phasegate in the Ariadne arm of the galaxy by the tyrannical space giant Alterra.  On their way to their location, they are shot down by some mysterious force coming from Planet 4546B.  How will the cast of survivors navigate the deadly oceans and find a way to survive?  This life-or-death situation will definitely test their relationships.  Can they find a cure to the deadly Kharaa bacterium in time?  Ultimately, some won't make it out alive.  Who'll survive?  And who will end up Drowning?
Relationships: Bulbasaur/Chikorita, Charmander/Squirtle, Piplup/Oshawott, Sobble/Scorbunny
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Slingshot Maneuver

Squirtle sighed. He was so bored. It felt like he had cleaned this spot four times already. Of course, he was one of the few aboard the Aurora that still had to work during their travel to the Phasegate location. He was a janitor. Head janitor. And people were messy. So he, along with the rest of the janitorial staff, had to work full-time while almost everyone else got to relax. He wished he could hang out with his friends, but Alterra would never allow that. Besides, most of them were busy now anyways. One of them worked under him as a janitor. Totodile was a little rough sometimes, and was also a little hot-headed and loud, but his heart was in the right place. He really thought he could make a difference by cleaning well enough. Squirtle chuckled to himself. He remembered one time when Totodile got a little too over enthusiastic and broke one of the mops. He had thought he’d be fired for sure. It ended up being alright though, because Squirtle was the one assigned to punish him. That was when they first really became friends.

Then there was Charmander. He and Squirtle had known each other for a while, even before they started working for Alterra. Charmander was a chef, and he spent most of his day flavorizing the food that the fabricators created. Culinary was the other big sector of employees that still had to work. Of course the Captain and the “more important” passengers like the CTO and the foreign emissaries were busy too, but they were paid great salaries for their work. Charmander sometimes got some time off, and he’d come and hang around wherever Squirtle was stationed for the day. They’d talk and pass time. He worked hard but Squirtle knew he hated his job. Often, he’d have early mornings and late nights. Squirtle didn’t envy him. At least when they finished their section of the ship for the day, they could take a break. The Aurora was pretty big, so it wasn’t super quick or anything, and it sure was boring, but still, it was doable. Charmander usually had to work all day without many breaks. It was nice of him to come see Squirtle while he was off. 

Finally, there was Chikorita and Bulbasaur. They were together almost all the time, and Squirtle knew it wasn’t only while working. Chikorita was the maintenance chief, making her the boss of Squirtle, and Bulbasaur worked as a Botanist on the upper floors. They had met each other at some point, and had gotten along really well since then. Bulbasaur was somewhat timid and Chikorita was more outgoing. A classic example of opposites attracting. Squirtle had gotten to know Bulbasaur through Chikorita, and they became friends relatively quickly. He was maybe the only one who didn’t have a job right now, which was the reason why he spent so much time with Chikorita. Squirtle did envy him. He was sure Charmander did too. 

While he had spent all that time thinking to himself about his friends and what they had been doing, he finished his section of the ship. He clocked out using his PDA, and put all his stuff away. He looked out of a large nearby window. They were getting closer to the planet they were going to slingshot around. He wondered what it’d look like. He and Bulbasaur shared an interest in looking at the planets they passed by on their travels. With this one being so important, he was sure he’d get a nice long look at it. Speaking of Bulbasaur, he was gonna eat dinner with him when the time came. Squirtle couldn’t wait until then. For now, he was gonna take a little break. He walked back to his room to grab a few things and then go hang out in the cafeteria. He was going to have a nice night. Little did he know, this would be his last on the Aurora. His current struggles were nothing compared to what he would go through soon. But, walking to his room before his dinner with his friend, he could enjoy himself for one more night until his whole world came crashing down.


	2. 4546B

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew of the Aurora have some respite before the arduous journey before them.

Totodile woke to his PDA going off loudly throughout his entire room. He turned his head to his roommates to see that Chimchar wasn’t there and Cyndaquil was giving him a murderous look. Totodile muttered a quiet “sorry” and then grabbed his PDA to see what was wrong with it. He looked and saw four messages from Squirtle telling him to come to the observation deck to view planet 4546B. Oops. He’d forgotten about that. He quickly freshened himself up and left his room with another sorry to Cyndaquil. As soon as his door closed, he sprinted down the hall to the observation deck. Fortunately, it wasn’t too far away from where his room was. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been looking where he was going, and he smacked into Sobble, who immediately started to bawl. Totodile lay on the ground, dazed. He was quickly picked up by Scorbunny, who then scolded him.

“Totodile! Pay Attention! You hit poor little Sobble! Apologise to him!”

Totodile inwardly smirked to himself. Everyone knew Scorbunny was very protective of Sobble. He almost never left his side. Relationship goals. Oh well. He did feel bad about plowing into Sobble like that.

“I’m sorry buddy! I was just really excited to see 4546B! Squirtle woke me up this morning with the news!” 

Sobble calmed down after a bit and tried to smile.

“Yeah. Me and ‘Bunny were going down there too. He seems interested about how it looks.” 

“We have that in common! I wanna see how it looks too. You think it’ll be cool to watch us slingshot around it? I’m most excited about that!”

“I’m sure it will be. Whatever Scorbunny’s into, I’m into. I’m also kinda ready to go home…”

“Don’t worry about that too much. I’m sure we’ll be back before you know it!”

Totodile smiled at him, and then looked up to see Scorbunny talking to Fennekin. Totodile had only ever seen her a couple of times, but he knew she was one of the emissaries. She was objectively beautiful, not that Totodile could ever even think of having anything with her. He wasn’t even sure he wanted anything like that ever anyway. Just having lots of friends here would be great. He had Squirtle, Charmander, Bulbasaur, Chikorita, Oshawott, possibly Cyndaquil, and… Fennekin had noticed him staring at her. She giggled softly and held one paw up to her mouth. She motioned for him and Sobble to come over. Totodile awkwardly walked over to where she was talking to Scorbunny. Sobble followed behind him. She smiled at them.

“Bonjour, Monsieur Totodile et Monsieur Sobble. Comment allez-vous ce matin? How are you? What is with all the rush?”

“Doing great, thank you. We were just heading to the observation deck to see 4546B!” Totodile responded happily.

Fennekin’s smile widened. “Quelle coïncidence! Me too. Can I come avec toi?” 

“Sure! Now we gotta get going! Come on guys!” Scorbunny said as he picked up Sobble.

Sobble blushed and everyone laughed before finally making their way to the observation deck. When they got there, Totodile scanned the crowd for Squirtle. Litten, Mudkip, Tepig, Snivy, Torchic… There he was! Totodile spotted him tapping his foot impatiently with Charmander next to him messing with his PDA. Squirtle noticed them, and ran over to grab them and make them go faster. 

“Come on guys! We’re almost to the planet! You’re gonna miss it!” 

Charmander laughed as they all made it to their positions to watch the growing blue sphere in front of them. Totodile waved to Bulbasaur and Chikorita, who weren’t far away. He didn’t realize how many people wanted to see this thing. He turned his attention back to the sight in front of him. It was close now. He could see the surface. It was beautiful! Voices rang out around the observation deck. 

“Wow!” “C’est beau!” “It’s amazing!” “Pretty blue, I’d say.” “Hey what’s that?

The ship began to turn.

“No seriously, it looks like it’s heading for the ship-” BOOM!

Something had just struck the ship! 

“What was that?!” “Oh my god!” “C’est mauvais!”

Totodile’s mind was racing. Did something happen to the ship? Another explosion. 

“ATTENTION. HULL FAILURE IMMINENT. ALL PERSONNEL, ABANDON SHIP.”

He heard screams. More explosions. He needed to get to a lifepod fast.


	3. Crashing Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The perspectives of some of the initial survivors while they're escaping.

As soon as he heard the explosion, Froakie started to run to the lifepod area in his sector. He had thrown down his cleaning equipment and ran. The explosion sounded close, but luckily the lifepods were in the opposite direction. He made it there without running into anyone, which upset him, but he didn’t have much time to think about it before strapping himself inside a lifepod and launching it. A small explosion engulfed the area he had just been in. Lucky. That didn’t stop him from crying the whole way down. He really hoped he didn’t die on impact.

Cyndaquil had no idea where Chimchar was. Totodile was probably at the observation deck, with his annoying friends. Cyndaquil didn’t have the time to go that far. The lifepods were close, and he could make it out alone. He was out of his bed and his room quickly. While running down the hall, he noticed Turtwig trying his best to make it to the lifepods. He was so slow that he probably wouldn’t make it. Against his better judgement, he turned back and grabbed the turtle, adrenaline making the task easy. Where was everyone else? He sprinted down the hall, uncaring. He made it to the lifepod bay and took the first one he saw. After strapping in the eternally grateful Turtwig, he quickly strapped himself in and launched. It hesitated for a second, before launching out of the ship. Cyndaquil’s heart was beating so fast that he passed out.

Treecko heard a scream from the back of the kitchen after the ship violently shook. He knew he should just leave whoever it was to increase his chance of survival, but he just couldn’t. Food was everywhere, and took him a bit, but he found Popplio with her tail crushed underneath a heavy-looking supply crate. He wouldn’t just leave her to die. He used all his strength to heroically pick up the crate and push it away. He grabbed Popplio and rushed out of the kitchen, towards the nearest lifepod bay. Parts of the ship had started to catch fire, and smoke was starting to fill the air. Piplup and Oshawott turned out of the hall behind him, soaking wet. Must’ve been in the pool. Their footsteps pounded behind them. The ship shook again and Popplio yelped. Her poor tail had definitely broken. They did reach the lifepod bay, and wished Oshawott and Piplup good luck before sliding down into the lifepod and launching away. Treecko was terrified.  
Rowlet and Chespin passed Chimchar and Grookey carrying various things into a lifepod. What were they doing?

“Hey! Guys! Just get in one! Don’t take all your stuff! You won’t get out in time! It’s not logical!” Rowlet yelled at the monkeys.

“Shut up bird brain! We do what we want!” Chimchar stuck out his tongue at them. 

“Racist!” Chespin yelled. “Come on, Rowlet. It’s their death-sentence. We’ve gotta go. Don’t let them slow us down!” 

“That wasn’t racist!” One of the monkeys yelled back.

Rowlet nodded and they both went inside the next lifepod and launched away. 

“Some people, man!”

The crowd running out of the observatory was huge and the lifepods were far and few. All they could do was run. The floor cracked, fire fell, people screamed. Explosions rocked the ship. Charmander stayed as close as he could to Squirtle. Everyone else was in front of them, with Scorbunny and Sobble leading the pack. He felt the floor shake, and jumped just in time over a new crack that formed dropping to a lower floor. Roselia next to him wasn’t so lucky. He instantly turned his head away and heard her scream. Tears spilled from his eyes and he closed the gap between him and Squirtle. They were getting closer. Another explosion rocked the ship. They had to make it! They ran faster. Others tripped, or just ran out of energy. But he wouldn’t stop. He couldn’t stop. He refused to die. They made it! Everyone jumped in the lifepod closest to them. Some people didn’t make it. Some were alone. They launched regardless. Charmander looked out of the hatch on top of the lifepod just in time to see a massive explosion overtake the entire ship. He looked back at Squirtle and just stared. The lifepod shook violently, and a panel from the side of the lifepod came loose and started to bounce around. It flew towards Squirtle and wacked him right on the head. Charmander would’ve called out, but it went right for him right after and everything went black.

Every pokémon still awake watched as the Aurora exploded. They had no idea what was going to happen, or where they were. All they knew is that they were far from any civilization. And that they were the only ones still alive. The last explosion made clear of that. What were they going to do? What dangers awaited them? Even though they had survived the hardest part, there was still so much for them to live through. How many of them could live through this? For all they knew, this planet was entirely ocean. Would they be able to keep themselves afloat? Or would they be the ones Drowning?


	4. An Infinite Ocean

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fennekin goes through her first day 4546B. Unfortunately, some survivors meet their end pretty quickly. Location is everything.

Fennekin woke after having passed out while her lifepod fell to the planet. So it hadn’t been a dream, then. Unfortunate. Oh well, she thought. Being alone would make things a tad more difficult, but she was sure she’d pull through. She managed to climb the ladder to see what she had to deal with- and her jaw dropped. Besides the back of the Aurora, all she could see water. Endless ocean, in every direction. But now that she thought about it, of course it was an ocean planet. It had been completely blue on the fly-by. How didn’t she feel the rocking of the waves? She sat and thought for a moment. She could still see most of the Aurora, which was a good thing, because it meant the water below her wasn’t thousands of feet deep. Or at least, it wasn’t around the Aurora. She had to keep calm. She made her way back into her lifepod and found her PDA. It rebooted in “Survival Mode” and the interface was very different. It had digital storage for resources, fabrication recipes (Only a few though because most were corrupted.), a camera, and data downloads. It scanned the local environment and determined that it was an ocean planet with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. She hadn’t even thought about whether the air was breathable or not when she first left the lifepod. That had been lucky. She looked through her lifepod’s storage and found some water and nutrient blocks. It was very little, and she knew that she would need to find more in order to survive. Everyone’s suits they wore on the Aurora doubled as wetsuits, so she was good there. After that, she messed with her radio for a bit. A rescue team was coming for her in 99999 hours, so that wasn’t happening. “Technologie stupide…” She mumbled to herself. Finally the radio gave her another message. A distress call! 

“Uhh… If anyone is there… we need help. We landed on some sort of landmass and the lifepod didn’t take it so well… There’s two of us here but one is in bad shape. Sending coordinates…”

Fennekin’s PDA downloaded the coordinates and plotted them on a mostly blank map. They really weren’t that far away. Wait what? She didn’t see any land earlier… She climbed the ladder again and looked in the direction of the signal. She still didn’t see any land… what was going on here? Her PDA buzzed again. Another signal. She went down and checked it. Maybe it was a clarification?

“H-hello to anyone who may be listening to this message. This is the head of the culinary staff, Tepig, speaking. My lifepod’s floatation devices have failed, and my lifepod has sunk to a depth of 500 meters underwater. From what I can see, the area around the lifepod is filled with a glowing kelp of some kind. Dangerous wildlife abound. Additionally, the hull integrity of my lifepod is low. There is a small leakage on the side of the vessel. I am seeking immediate assistance. Tepig, out.” 

That hadn’t been what she’d expected. She knew him! Another message. She felt sick. 

“This is Froakie. No notable title. Help needed. Landed in a purple glowing area with electrical wildlife. Hull integrity low. This message will now repeat.”

She turned the radio off. What was she going to do? Each call seemed worse, and each was progressively farther away. The third signal was almost to the front of the Aurora! She guessed she had to prioritize. The closer to her, the easier to save. And the first one was on land. Apparently invisible land. She took a deep breath. She was hungry and thirsty and tired. She could take care of two of those things. Reluctantly, she turned her radio back on. Instantly, there was another signal. Should she play this one? Maybe it was one of the people from before… But probably not. That meant there were more survivors! Using that thought as a reason, she played it. 

“Hey guys! How’s it goin’? Everything’s great here!” She heard a muffled roar in the background. “Anyways, so we-” 

“Chimchar! Take this seriously! We’re in actual danger!” 

“Come on Grookey, we’re fine.” Another louder roar. 

“What was that?” 

“I said we’re fine. So hey, we’re near the Aurora, don’t recommend it at all. There’s like, crazy high radiation levels and stuff. Also-” A deafening roar stopped the speakers again. “there’s some huge fish out there. So uhh yeah.” 

Someone screamed. The noise of what sounded like metal tearing and water rushing in was heard. “We’re upside down, help us please!” The other voice yelled. The sound distorted and another roar was all she heard before the signal stopped. 

She knew that those two people were dead. There was no way they survived that. She wanted to lay down and cry. Listening to that signal had been a very bad idea. She now knew for sure that this planet had very dangerous wildlife that were very spread out all over the place. None of the signal locations were from the south of her, which she didn’t know whether was just coincidence or something more. She didn’t want to try her luck. She finished one nutrient block and one water before finally deciding to go into the water. She was terrified, but if she could find land and those two survivors, it would be worth it. She opened the bottom hatch and tentatively looked down into the somewhat dark water. Pulling on her mask, she finally worked up the courage to jump in. The water wasn’t super cold, which was nice. But she wasn’t reassured at all. Swimming down only a little bit revealed a big spike of rock, poking out of the ground. Further down she noticed more of these spikes all around the area. Her PDA named it the “Cragfield”. She noticed a small fish swim by her. It didn’t look dangerous. She swam around for a bit before she ran out of breath. Barely surfacing in time, she promised herself to practice better caution in the future. Once she was feeling good again, she dived down again. The PDA said something about copper and titanium in the area. Which she needed some of. She found a couple of outcrops, which were easy ways to get the metals. They always seemed to have something inside of them. After going up and down again a couple of times, she thought she had enough metal. She made an oxygen tank with the titanium and quickly put it to use. Maybe she could eat the small fish? She searched for a bit and eventually found a couple. Hoopfish is what the PDA named them. The sun was starting to set and it was getting dark. She would make sure to go after the people in trouble tomorrow. She was the first priority. A different looking fish swam by her, and she was determined to grab it. The tips of its odd fins were glowing in the dark. She chased it through the crags and found some sliver along the way. This place really did have lots of resources. She eventually caught up to it and cheered for herself. She put it away in the PDA and looked to see where she was. The crags had fallen away, as had the floor itself. Completely black water was all she could see. Her heart started racing instantly. A faint blue glow could be seen in the distance. Her PDA said something about this being an ecological dead-zone. The glow was getting closer, and it roared. She turned around and was out of there in seconds. She found the crags again, and couldn’t be more relieved. Until she found out she was practically out of oxygen. She raced for the surface, determined not to drown. Hadn’t she promised herself not to drown? She made it to the surface just as everything started to go black. After finally getting a hold of herself, she made it back to her lifepod, heart still racing. She would definitely sleep well after that adventure. She cooked and ate the fish she got with the fabricator. They were alright, and she went to sleep soon after that. Tomorrow was a new day.


	5. Meeting Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some survivors explore and find each other. Just in the nick of time, too.

Totodile was out of his chair almost as soon as he’d landed. He needed to survey the damage. Climbing the ladder and looking at the Aurora, it was pretty clear that no amount of mopping would fix that. Darn it. There went his mop. Along with all the food, water, and the way home. Those were probably more important if he’d have to guess. He was already hungry. Main problem with being an energetic reptile. He sat down and pouted. He was so over this. He had been having fun with his friends, and now OF COURSE, they were probably all dead or something. He bet that if he looked around right now, that he wouldn’t see any other lifepods at all and he’d be the sole survivor. His stupid luck. He begrudgingly stood back up to look around. Almost to spite him, he turned around and saw two lifepods in different directions not far from him. His face quickly brightened from it’s scowl. Nevermind then. He chose the one closer to the Aurora first, as it looked like it might kind of be on fire. Which was weird, considering that it was floating on a bunch of water. He dived into the water and then realized that he had just jumped right into an alien ocean without any caution at all. He really hoped he wasn’t the only survivor, because he probably wouldn’t last too long. The tall green kelp around him was kind of creepy. Especially because he kept hearing lots of loud roars all around him. The thought had never once crossed his mind that there might be creatures on this planet. Hopefully their loud intimidating roars were friendly. He never saw what they looked like as he swam to an area that was shallower and had no scary roars. If he had to name the two areas he might just call them the Safe Shallows and the Creepvine Forest. Or maybe it was because his PDA said so. Also there were lots of tasty fish that Totodile just couldn’t wait to sink his teeth into. He was grabbing them as he went along, his PDA coming up with names on the spot. Peeper, Boomerang, Garyfish, Hoverfish, and Bladderfish. He finally reached the burning lifepod and opened the top hatch. Hopefully whoever was inside wasn’t dead. Smoke rose out of the opening, but he crawled in anyway. It only took him a second to find out who was in there. His eyes went wide before they closed again because of the smoke. He unstrapped Charmander and Squirtle as fast as he could and hoisted them out of the lifepod and onto the top. His friends’ unconscious bodies lay on top of the warm metal. He thought about taking them back to his lifepod, but that would mean swimming back with them and he was pretty sure Charmander would die if his tail flame went out. Or was that the other way around? Oh well, he wasn’t risking it. He probably needed to put the fire out, though. He climbed back down into the lifepod and found a fire extinguisher. With that, he managed to put the fire out. These guys were lucky that he found them when he did. Otherwise Squirtle would’ve died from fire and Charmander from explosion and/or water. With all of that over with, Totodile climbed back out and took a deep breath. Man, he was already exhausted and hungry and thirsty and it had only been like half an hour. He laid down by his friends and took a nap.

The first thing Charmander did when he woke up was turn his head and vomit off of the side of the lifepod. It was all black, and that concerned him greatly. Wait. Where was he? His face was scrunched up because of the terrible tasting black liquid in his mouth. He spit out as much as he could. Ok, so everything was water, and he was lying down on top of a lifepod with Totodile and Squirtle, both of which seemed to be asleep. The Aurora looked to be in extremely bad condition, and he could see some other lifepods in the distance from theirs. He assumed one was Totodile’s because he hadn’t been with them when they came down, and someone had moved them on top of their lifepod. He wondered why though. He avoided stepping on his friends and climbed through the open top hatch. It smelled like smoke, and one half of the lifepod was blackened. Oh. That was probably what Totodile had saved them from. He would really have to thank him later. Charmander rummaged through the storage container and thankfully found that the contents were still alright. He took one of the two water bottles and drank it to help get rid of the smoky vomit taste in his mouth. Afterwards, he ate one of the nutrient blocks. Those were nice and filling. They’d definitely need more food and drinkable water soon. They couldn’t support three people on one nutrient block. Hopefully Totodile had found something. He couldn’t really do much, as going in the water would kill him quickly. So he was basically stuck in this tiny lifepod for the foreseeable future. He pulled out his PDA and waited for it to reboot. Maybe he could do something useful with this. He looked through different recipes and tried to find something they could use. Of course, many of them had been corrupted and they didn’t actually have any of these resources, but he found a few tools that would be good. A repair tool, for one, so they could fix up the lifepod, a scanner, so they could get more information on what might be around them, and a survival knife, for defense. Charmander sighed. He hoped the others woke up soon. Curiosity overtaking him, he opened up the bottom hatch and peered down into the water. The sun outside made the water nice and bright blue. Some type of fish swam by. He saw mushrooms of some type growing around some corals. He didn’t know how long he waited there, just watching the ocean. A sudden loud noise spooked him out of his staring. It sounded like an explosion? He was about to climb the ladder to the top of the lifepod before someone popped up through the hatch on the bottom. A rather disgruntled looking Litten. 

“I hate the water.” He turned to Charmander. “Whassup?”

“Uh hi! Where did you come from?”

Litten gestured to the north. “Over there. Our lifepod isn't super far from yours. We went to the other one first, but we didn’t find anyone there.”

Charmander was glad there were more survivors. “We? Who else is with you?” 

“My pal Mudkip. We went with each other during all that chaos in the observation deck. He’s getting some sulphur or something from exploding fish.”

“So that’s what that was. I thought it came from the Aurora.” 

Mudkip came up from the ocean and Litten turned to him. “There ya are. Say hi to Charmander.”

“Hey dude. Anyways Litten, I got some of that sulphur stuff the PDA said was in the caves around here. The fish were super fast. Luckily I’m good at swimming.” 

“Yeah! He can even breathe underwater! How’s that fair?!” Litten looked very annoyed. “Meanwhile I’m some dumb fire cat!” 

“Hey at least you can go in the water. I die if I go in the water unprotected.” Chamander said. He motioned to his tail.

Litten cringed. “Rough man.”

“Yeah. Hey Mudkip, you said you had sulphur?”

“Yep. There was a bunch in the caves down there.” 

“Can I borrow some? Along with some…” He pulled out his PDA and checked his bookmarked recipes. “Titanium? And… Silicone Rubber?”

Mudkip looked confused. “What’s silicone rubber? Sure you can have some of the other stuff.”

Charmander looked at the recipe for silicone rubber. “We need something called a “Creepvine seed cluster.” 

He showed them a picture.

“Oh hey yeah. We’ve seen those. I can go get one.” Mudkip jumped back into the water.

“So what is this for?” Litten asked. 

“It’s for a repair tool. I want to fix the lifepod up so that it's not so smoky. And having a radio would be nice.”

“Cool, hey by the way, are you the only one here?” Litten asked.

“No, actually. Squirtle and Totodile are asleep on the roof. They’ve been out for a while. Totodile actually saved us from burning to death.”

“That’s why it’s so gross in here. Hopefully that lifepod we found was Totodile’s and not someone else’s.”

They waited and talked for a bit. Mudkip eventually returned. After he gave Charmander the materials, Charmander went to the fabricator to make the tools. The one seed cluster actually gave him two silicone rubber, so using that along with extra titanium, he made a knife. Once he built the repair tool, he got to work quickly. Litten and Mudkip chatted and watched him fix the lifepod’s wiring and the radio. The lifepod’s power came back and the radio began receiving signals again. Within minutes, the smell of smoke was gone and Charmander felt good about himself.

“There we go! Everything is good now!” Charmander said.

“Good job dude. Now we can listen to some tunes!” Mudkip hopped over to the radio to turn it on.

“I don’t think we’ll be getting anything like that. We’re too far away from any civilization.” Charmander explained.

“But we’re getting something, right? Might as well see what it is.” 

Mudkip turned on the radio and the three of them listened to the same broadcasts that Fennekin had heard.

“Oof. Well those guys are dead, and I’m 1000% more scared of this ocean now.” Litten said. 

They heard a noise from the top of the lifepod. Charmander was quick to go see what it was. 

It seemed as though the two water types had finally woken up. Squirtle was vomiting black stuff like Charmander had been. Poor guy. Totodile was with him. He noticed Charmander and smiled.

“Hey! I didn’t really know where you were! Nice to know you’re ok! Poor Squirtle over here isn’t doing too well.”

They both looked to Squirtle, who was still hunched over the side of the lifepod. Charmander cringed.

“Poor guy. Hey Squirtle, when you feel better, I have some things in storage for you.”

Squirtle nodded before retching again.

“I’ll leave you guys to that. Hey Charmander, did you fix the lifepod of something? It’s not smoking or anything.” Totodile said.

“Yeah. Litten and Mudkip found us and helped me out. They’re still down there if you wanna say hi.”

Totodile went wide-eyed. “There are more survivors? And you didn’t tell me right away? Lemme see ‘em!” He rushed to the ladder and almost knocked Charmander over.

“Woah! Easy man. I can’t fall in the water.”

“Oh! Sorry! Man, we’re gonna have to do something about that soon. We can’t just leave you here forever! Don’t worry, I’m sure Alterra has something for types like you. Anyways, I’ll be down here if you need me.” He then slid down the ladder and closed the hatch. 

Charmander could hear the beginning of their conversation as he walked over to Squirtle and sat down next to him. He patted his back.

“What’re we gonna do man? We’re stuck super far away from any civilization. There’s like, no chance for rescue, and there’s lots of scary fish in the water.” 

Squirtle shrugged. It seemed like he was finally done with being sick. “I don’t know. All that I’m sure about is that we can make it through this. I mean, we’ve survived working with Alterra for all these years. What could be worse than that? It’s not like they can reach us out here! We can be free! If we don’t die, of course.” 

Charmander smiled and leaned his head on Squirtle’s shoulder. “You’re right. Of course this planet is dangerous, but we really are in control of our own lives here. We can finally…” He broke off. 

“What is it?”

“Nevermind. It doesn’t matter. We’re gonna escape eventually anyways. Now, since you’re feeling better, would you like to eat and drink something?”

Squirtle’s stomach rumbled in response. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He laughed.

The two of them went inside of the lifepod where Totodile was talking to Litten and Mudkip. Charmander grabbed Squirtle’s stuff and gave it to him, and then they sat down with the other three and chatted for the rest of the evening before they all went to sleep.


	6. Floating Island

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A large group of survivors respond to the same distress call, uniting them together. The island is a good place to build a base. Maybe they have a chance at survival?

Treecko and Popplio had managed to wait out the first day without running into too much danger. One of those massive glowing blue eels had attacked their lifepod, and it had sunk to the ocean floor. But besides that, they had been ok. After getting that signal for dry land that wasn’t far away, they had decided to make that their goal to reach. It was going to be difficult, because Popplio was injured and they had to swim farther up than was safe, but Treecko was determined to make it. They had used all of their provisions up, and it was time to go. 

“I’m so sorry Treecko. I really wish I wasn’t just dead weight for you. If only there were some way I could help…”

“We’ll be fine. We have a Seaglide, and that will get us up there faster. It’s just around 400 meters straight up. And you can breathe underwater, can’t you?”

Popplio had forgotten about that. She couldn’t breathe underwater, but she was very good at holding her breath. “I can’t breathe underwater, but I can hold my breath for a really long time. I could hold the Seaglide if you want me to!”

Treecko shrugged. “Maybe that would be a good idea. I’ll just hold on to you, if that’s okay.”

“That’s fine. We should probably get going.”

“Sounds like a good idea. Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Alright then. Let’s go.”

They both took a deep breath before opening the top hatch and letting the water rush in. They grabbed onto each other, grabbed the seaglide, and began their swim to the surface.

Popplio and Oshawott had quickly discovered that the water underneath them was dangerous. They seemed to be on the edge of a very steep drop-off, with one side being visible, and the other just dropping off into black nothingness. Their PDA’s said it was an ecological dead-zone, and that the only things that lived there were microscopic and leviathan-class. They had seen one of the leviathan class lifeforms when Oshawott’s more daring side caused him to swim out into that darkness. Within seconds, some distant roars and blue glowing scared him back into the safety of the lifepod. Piplup had scolded him for a while afterwards. “The PDA said that it was dangerous! That thing could’ve come up here and attacked the lifepod! What were you thinking?” After that, they had just waited in the lifepod for a while. When the signals had come, they were relieved that all of them had come from the east. Away from the deadly blackness. Piplup had decided then that it was time to go. Dry land was much safer than this deadly void. They left not long after, swimming towards the signal location their PDAs showed. 

Fennekin decided that it was high time she left for the island. She felt about as prepared as she was ever going to be. She gathered her remaining resources and stored them in her PDA before bidding her lifepod adieu. She jumped into the water and began her swim to the island. Even though she was only swimming on the surface of the water, she was still terrified. If there were any creatures around here like the one in the Void, she’d be in trouble. Occasionally, she would go underwater for a bit to see if there was anything beneath her. Once, she thought she saw something moving. She decided to ignore it and pick up the pace. After a bit of swimming, she actually saw the island appear out of a mass of clouds. That was why she hadn’t been able to see it before. It made a bit more sense now. The ocean floor had dropped more, and she definitely couldn’t see the bottom now. Deep blue was all that filled her vision. She finally made it to the island, and couldn’t have been more grateful. All of that swimming was starting to tire her out. It was weird that the island didn’t seem to have any mountainous buildup beneath it. The beach was kind of like a ledge hanging over the ocean. She dried herself off a bit before beginning her search around the island for the survivors that were in trouble. 

Treecko gasped as his head popped above the surface of the water. That had been a close one. Popplio seemed okay, but she looked a little tired. They decided to rest for a bit. They hadn’t had to do too much swimming, so floating there wasn’t super tiring. 

“We made it Treecko! We’re okay!” Popplio said, slightly out of breath.  
Treecko only nodded. “I can see the island, too!” He turned his head to where she was looking and saw it. They were so close. 

“We should go. We’ll recover faster if we don’t have to keep swimming.” Treecko said.

“Sounds like a good idea to me. Are you rested enough?’

“I’ll be fine”

Popplio turned on the seaglide and swam them over to the island. It didn’t take too long, and when they pulled onto the beach, Treecko lay down in the sand. Popplio tried to walk around a bit before realizing her tail was injured and that it hurt quite a lot when she tried to walk on it. She promptly crawled back to Treecko and laid next to him. They both hoped that this island had food and water.

Oshawott and Piplup had made it to the island rather quickly, even though they couldn’t see it at first. They had to swim around it a bit to find a low enough beach to actually be able to get on to, but once that was over with they were ready to explore this island. They hoped some of this stuff was edible. Piplup had made a scanner with some of the materials they had found, and they were going to the different plants that were all over the place and scanning them. Oshawott found a strange piece of metal that didn’t look like it belonged. It was a jagged piece of titanium that looked slightly blackened, but otherwise still very new. Which must’ve meant that it was recent. Maybe the lifepod that fell on the island was around here? 

“Hey Piplup. D’you think that this is a part of one of the lifepods?”

Piplup looked at it for a moment. “Probably. I don’t know why else there would be random chunks of titanium on this island. We should look for them after we eat. My scanner said that this Bulbo Tree is edible.”

“Bulbo Tree?” 

“I didn’t name it. “

Oshawott shrugged. “Doesn’t matter I guess. Hopefully it’s good.”

Fennekin was searching the island for any other survivors. There were plants everywhere, but she didn’t know if any were edible or not, so she avoided them. She could see two large mountains on the island, and they seemed to have old habitats stationed on top of them. She wondered who had been here before. Obviously they weren’t here anymore, with how rusted they were. She was nearing the middle of the island, and she could see another one of the rusted habitats. Once she got closer, it seemed that something else had crashed into it. She had a good idea what that was. Soft clicking noises were coming from inside the habitat. Then she heard someone speak. 

“Go away… leave me alone…” They seemed to be in distress. That was the voice she had heard before! She rushed to the building to help whoever was inside. Once she had squeezed herself into the building through an opening in one of the multipurpose rooms, she navigated her way to the other room that had been crushed by the lifepod. It was an unpleasant sight. The lifepod was somewhat intact, and there was a turtle pokemon fending off some unpleasant looking crab monsters. On the other side of the room, they seemed to be clustered around something on the floor. Fennekin didn’t really have a way to deal with them. What could she do? 

Treecko was finally rested enough to feel normal again. He was a little thirsty, but otherwise okay. He didn’t really know what to do about Popplio though… 

“Do you think you can walk?”

“I don’t think I can. I tried to earlier, and it hurt so much that I only lasted about five seconds. I’m really sorry!”

“No. You’re fine. I guess I can go by myself. Can you defend yourself if any dangerous creatures come over here?”

“Maybe?”

Treecko sighed. “I guess I’ll just carry you, then. Come here.”

Popplio was a little surprised by this, but went with it. She didn’t want Treecko to be mad at her. She crawled a little ways to Treecko and then he picked her up. It seemed like this was going to be difficult for him. He started walking further into the island. They only lasted for a bit before he had to take a break, and then he almost fell into a giant hole in the island that dropped back into the ocean. 

“Be careful, Treecko! That looks really steep!”

There was Popplio, pointing out the obvious. The drop was kind of out of nowhere, though. It looked like there were a few caves leading out of the beachy area below. Maybe there was some way down there that didn’t involve falling straight down. This looked like a really good area for a habitat… If they ever found food or building materials. He looked around at the trees above him. They didn’t really look sturdy enough to build a home with. Hmm. He walked back to Popplio to check if she was still doing okay. She was sitting in a little spot of sunlight in a gap in the forest canopy. 

“Are you okay Treecko? You didn’t fall, did you?”

“No, I didn’t. It would’ve taken me longer to get here if I did. How did you know there was a hole over there if you didn’t even go over there with me?”

“Oh, I saw it earlier while you were carrying me. I… forgot to tell you about it.” She gave him a nervous smile.

Treecko just rolled his eyes. He couldn’t get angry with her now, or they probably wouldn’t survive. Survival depended on teamwork. He opened his mouth to speak before someone else’s loud speech startled both him and Popplio.

“Yo Piplup! Look at this hole!”

That was someone else’s voice! Someone else was here! And they were calling for another someone!

“Oshawott, I think I found where the lifepod landed! We don’t have time for interruptions! Come over here!” 

“Come on man! You don’t wanna see this? It’s pretty cool!”

“GET OVER HERE!”

“Okay, Piplup.”

Treecko grabbed Popplio and ran over to where he heard the voices. A path led around the dip and to some sort of clearing. There was an old rusted habitat that looked like something had crashed into it. He could see the two other survivors inspecting it. There seemed to be some kind of commotion inside. 

Fennekin heard some loud voices from just outside of the habitat. Turtwig had heard them too, and was calling out for them. 

“Is someone out there…? Help me!”

Fennekin grabbed a jagged piece of metal with her mouth and tried to hit one of the crabs with it. It missed and called the attention of some of the crabs her way. Turtwig saw her too.   
He looked a little beaten up, but there was hope in his eyes. 

Treecko climbed up one of the trees and grabbed some leaves. Out of them, he created one of his special Razor Leaves, something he’d learned how to make when he was a child. He could turn any normal leaves into sharp blades that were strong enough to cut through titanium. Once he had created one, he rushed out past Popplio to the building to cut it open. He quickly slashed four lines into the titanium wall, cutting out a large rectangle that ended up falling inwards and squashing a bunch of those crab monsters. He never thought that he would ever have to use his Razor Leaves for survival, but he sure was glad his dad spent all that time teaching him to make them. Popplio, Oshawott, Piplup, Turtwig, and Fennekin were all staring at him wide-eyed. To finish the job, Treecko jumped into the building and killed the remaining crabs as well. 

“There we go.”

Oshawott was the first to speak. “Oh my Arceus! That was AWESOME!”

Piplup rushed in to scan the dead crab monsters not crushed by the chunk of titanium. Popplio crawled her way over to the rest of the group. Fennekin helped Turtwig out of his lifepod, and everyone came together. 

“Hello, Island Crew! That’s what we’re called now, by the way.” Oshawott said. 

“We should probably introduce ourselves formally. Hello, everyone. My name is Piplup.”

“It’s Oshawott!”

“I’m SO happy there are more survivors! My name’s Popplio by the way.”

“Treecko.”

“Bonjour, je m’appelle Fennekin.”

“My name’s… Turtwig… Thanks for saving me…”

“So! Now that that’s done, what’s up, Island Crew!” 

“We need to find resources.” Treecko said.

“And build a better shelter.” Piplup added.

They both glared at him with serious expressions.

“Woah there. You guys need to calm down! Relax, we’ll be fine. Me an’ Pip already found a food and water source. And this rusty tin can’s still half intact! Plus, there’s some growbeds outside, which we can use to grow some more food. With Leafy’s crazy weapons, we’re practically set forever!”

Piplup rolled their eyes. Treecko just looked away. “It never hurts to strive for better.”

Fennekin, seeing the tension, decided she needed to calm everyone down. “Listen, maybe it would be better if vous separated for a bit? It seems you are quite different. Nous could come up avec un plan as we go along?”

“That sounds like a good idea! Hey Turtwig, do you have any medkits? Another one might help my tail heal faster. I can’t really walk right now.” Said Popplio.

“I don’t think so… I think I used the last one on Cyndaquil… It wasn’t enough…”

“Cyndaquil? Wait. You did say something about someone else who was with you! What happened to them?” Popplio asked.

Turtwig’s face fell. “He… uh… died. Those crab things were eating him when they got crushed…”

Everyone was now very disturbed.

“Does that mean he’s still under there?”

“Probably…”

“We’re not staying in here.” Treecko said.

“Those “crab things” are called Cave Crawlers. They’re natural decomposers.” Piplup said.

“Maybe we could use one of the bases up on top of the mountains? Those seem like they would be far enough away.” Treecko said.

“Guys! Do you even care that there’s a dead body in here? Poor Cyndaquil. He won’t even get a proper burial! We have to leave him crushed by metal and half eaten!” Popplio was in tears.

“He saved me…” Turtwig was also crying. “So brutal…”

Treecko and Piplup were unaffected. “We’re bound to lose a few. The weak die off. That’s how survival works.” Treecko said, but he knew he didn't mean it. 

Popplio glared at him. “What is wrong with you? Last time I checked you were helping me! As far as I know, I’m also a liability to you! Are you gonna let me die too?”

“Of course not. There’s just no reason to get upset over this. We didn’t even know him. Tears just amount to wasted water. It sucks that he’s gone, but we couldn’t have done much about it anyway. It happened before we even got here.”

Popplio saw some sense in that, no matter how little she wanted to. “I still don’t think it’s fair.”

“That’s just how this stuff goes.” Piplup said. “I sent Oshawott out earlier to gather some Bulbo Tree samples we can eat. They have a high water content, so they should satisfy our needs pretty well.”

“You really like that scanner, don’t you?” 

“Of course. It gives me lots of information about the world around me. Quite helpful in this situation, wouldn’t you say?”

“I guess it really has been.”

They sat quietly for a moment.

“We should get out of here. All of these dead creatures are bothering me.”

“Good idea.”

The four of them left the old base and started scouting out a place for their habitat. Treecko had an idea on where he wanted to put it. Once Oshawott returned with the food and they ate, Treecko showed them all to the dip in the island. 

“Oh yeah! Hey Piplup! This is what I was trying to show you earlier! Isn’t it cool?”

“It looks interesting. How are we supposed to get down there?”

“Like this!”

Oshawott jumped right from the ledge and into the water below. 

“He’s going to die someday.” Piplup said.

Oshawott popped his head back above the water with a smile on his face.

“See guys? It was fine. The water’s pretty deep here! Way deeper than I thought it would be!” 

“Is there an easier way to get down there, maybe? I do not know if I want to jump down there!” Fennekin yelled to Oshawott. 

“Maybe! I’ll check and see!” Oshawott got out of the water and explored around the beach area.

They waited and talked for a bit. The sun was starting to set, and it was getting chilly.

“Hey guys! Over here! I found a way down there!” Oshawott ran up next to them, startling Turtwig pretty badly in the process.

“Uhh, sorry dude. But over here guys!” He led them to a cave. They followed him through it, and sure enough, they ended up at the opening they had been above earlier.

“Cool right? We could totally build a base here!” Oshawott said. Treecko agreed.

“I guess, if it has access to the ocean, it wouldn’t be the worst idea. Fine, whatever, the location is suitable, I guess.” Piplup said.

“Woohoo! Yeah, we are so killing this! What do we need now?”

“Resources.”

“Oh.”


	7. Scary Fish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bunch of scary encounters with many different types of fish. Poor Chespin's not looking too good... Also, everyone has some type of weird bacterial infection. What could this mean?

The lifepod shook. A loud roar hurt their ears. The floatation devices had been punctured and they were now sinking. Bulbasaur and Chikorita were both terrified. They sat stone-still for what seemed like forever until the lifepod hit the ocean floor and the Reaper Leviathan left them alone. They had been extremely lucky. They had landed a couple of days ago and had explored the area they landed in. Their PDA’s called it the Dunes, and told them to watch out for dangerous wildlife. The seafloor was very flat and sandy, with some creatures called Sand Sharks swimming erratically and trying to catch small fish that swam by. Chikorita had scanned one while it had tried to chase her. Not too far away, they had found another, much safer, area that was called the Mushroom Forest. There were lots of resources there, and they had used that to get all of their equipment. The only reason they had gone back to the Dunes was because it was where their only fabricator was located. They should’ve never come back. Once they had created a couple of Seaglides, Bulbasaur had thought he heard something. They dismissed it though, which had been a mistake. As soon as they left the lifepod, they saw it. A massive, blue and red monster with four crimson claws on its face. Its four black eyes had locked on them instantly and it roared. They went back into their lifepod in a heartbeat. Somehow the information about the creature had been recorded, and they learned its name. But not until after it had tried to kill them. Now, sitting on the ocean floor, they really didn’t know what to do.

“Do you think it’s gone?”

“I can’t hear it anymore…”

They went quiet for a moment. They didn’t hear anything.

“We need to get out of here. Maybe we can find that dry land or something before our seaglides run out of battery. The fabricator isn’t worth our lives.” Chikorita said. 

“Yeah, but where should we go? Wasn’t the signal corrupted or something?”

“It is. The radiation leaking from the Aurora might’ve caused it.”

“What’re we gonna do?”

“Someone needs to go over there and fix it. If the drive core keeps leaking, it will kill both of us, along with everything else living here. We can’t let that happen.”

“You want to go over there? That’s crazy!”

“It probably is, Bulbasaur. But if we wait, we’ll die anyway, so at least we’d die saving all the life in the area instead of just doing nothing.”

“I guess…”

“So we need to swim over there. I know there’s a recipe for a radiation suit somewhere in the PDA, so maybe along the way we’ll find the resources we need for making them.”

“Okay, maybe that’ll work. I trust you, Chikorita.”

“Great. We should get going, then.”

“I guess so. Goodbye, scary Dunes and Reaper Leviathan. I’m sure we’ll never have to see another one of you ever again!”

“I sure hope so.”

Snivy and Torchic had found an island close to where their lifepod had landed in the Mountains. They had managed to avoid some crazy looking fish. Huge monster fish with claws on their faces, and purple things that could teleport themselves around the water. With Torchic’s terrible swimming ability, it had been a challenge to get there. But they had done it.   
It seemed that some of the plants there were edible, and they had found a crazy looking alien structure that stuck out into the ocean. It looked pretty ominous, and there was a forcefield blocking the entrance, so they just avoided it. After exploring a bit, they found a cave that seemed to lead into the heart of the island. There were a few crab monsters, but the duo avoided them as well and found lots of lithium, gold, and diamonds. They were rich! Kind of.

“Do you think we’ll be able to sell these?” Torchic asked.

“Probably not. If we do though, I’m taking all of it. A lady like me deserves it, you know.”

Torchic rolled his eyes. “Sure, Princess.”

Snivy scoffed. “We only got here because I swam you to shore. You should still be thanking me. I didn’t sign up to go on some ocean survival adventure!”

“None of us did! Do you think that any of us were ready for this?” 

“No, of course I didn’t. But creatures like you should already be accustomed to situations like these. You should be the one doing well here. So far, I’ve done all the work!”

“You have? Are you sure? I’m pretty sure I’ve been gathering all of the resources! Spoiled rich people like you never know how it is to have to work to survive! You always have others do the work for you!”

“You will NOT speak to your superiors that way! I’ll have you know that I-

“I don’t CARE! I’d be better off without you!”

“I’m sure that I would be perfectly fine without you! You wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for me!”

“I could’ve made it myself!”

“You couldn’t have.’

“I could’ve.”

“Could not.”

“Could to!”

“I’m fairly certain you would’ve been eaten.”

“Shut up!”

“I think it would be best if you left! You are acting like a petulant child and I will have no more!”

“Fine! See ya, Smug Leaf!”

Snivy glared at him as he left the cave. What an insolent man! After a bit, she noticed that he’d left his PDA on the ground. Along with all the resources. They were all hers now. She smiled to herself. She was in the middle of transferring them to her PDA when Torchic came back.

“You took it!”

She glanced over to him. “I did not take it. You left it in here when you stormed off earlier.”

“Sure I did. Give it back to me.”

“I don’t think that is necessary.”

“You’re trying to steal my resources! Give them to me!”

“I am not. I’m just protecting them.”

“LIAR!”

Torchic seemed to have taken enough and charged at her. She quickly evaded him, and ran deeper into the cave. Torchic chased her, and after a bit, Snivy made it to a sudden drop in the cave. She stopped suddenly, and when Torchic sped up to get her, he didn’t notice it in time. Snivy barely got out of the way in time for Torchic to run right off of the edge of the cliff and fall straight down onto the rocky floor below. His last words right before he hit the ground were yelling her name. He went still soon after. Snivy looked away. She hadn’t meant to kill him! Now she was alone. She didn’t know what to do.

“Okay Island Crew! We need to go diving! Are you guys ready?” Oshawott said.

He looked around at his group of survivors and they nodded. What a fine group they were.

“Rule number 1! No splitting up! Staying together means we won’t get separated!” Piplup had an objection.

“Actually, if we split into groups, we’ll be able to gather resources more efficiently. Another thing, Popplio is injured, how well do you think she’ll do when swimming?”

“I thought you agreed to listen to me!” 

“Only if your ideas weren’t dumb.”

“They’re not dumb!”

“Are you sure?”

Oshawott thought about it for a bit. Maybe sending out an injured person wasn’t the best idea… and maybe they could get more if they split up…

“Oh alright fine. Your arguments make sense. Popplio and Turtwig, you stay here on the island. It should be pretty safe here in this inlet. Try to send out a signal or something if you can. Then, when we split up, we can’t get lost or anything. Piplup is coming with me and Fennekin goes with Treecko. Is everyone okay with this?”

“Sounds good to me.” Piplup said.

Treecko and Fennekin nodded, and Turtwig and Popplio seemed grateful.

“Okay, one more thing. Do not split from your other group member. We can’t afford to lose anyone. Here’s to hoping this goes to plan. Is everyone ready?”

Everyone nodded again.

“Alright let’s go!”

The four divers then jumped into the water and began their exploration. To their surprise, it looked as though the island they were on was actually floating, being held up by these massive creatures called Ancient Floaters. Fennekin now understood why the coast had been somewhat curved. After that, they separated. Piplup and Oshawott went back to around where their lifepod landed, and Fennekin and Treecko swam towards the Aurora. 

The two water-types were excellent swimmers, and made it back to the Sea Treader’s Path relatively quickly. They both knew that the Sea Treaders themselves were an excellent way to unearth resources. As they stomped around, they kicked up chunks of shale that had gold, diamonds, and lithium inside. Piplup and Oshawott followed the non lethal leviathans from a distance, gathering the things they kicked up. 

Treecko and Fennekin stayed close to the water’s surface, unable to hold their breaths for as long as Piplup and Oshawott. Fennekin’s oxygen tank made it easier for her. She knew she should’ve gone back to where her lifepod landed, but she wanted to explore more of this world. It’s not like Treecko would ever know. After a bit of swimming, the ocean floor rose dramatically and most of the plantlife disappeared. The PDA called it the Sparse Reef. There seemed to be lots of limestone chunks, which contained titanium and copper. It was kind of creepy here, as there were almost no fish around at all. Speaking of fish, Fennekin was grabbing any ones they found along the way. The bulbo trees tasted really bad, and she wanted some protein. There were a few chasms that dropped deeper into the water, and Fennekin wanted to explore them, but they looked a little too deep for her right now. Treecko seemed to have found something while she was thinking to herself. He grabbed her and pointed to something that was floating on top of the water in the distance. It looked like it was probably another lifepod. Both of them quickly swam over to it, hoping to find someone inside.

Rowlet was tending to poor Chespin when Treecko suddenly opened the bottom hatch of the lifepod. They both jumped and then realized what they were staring at. 

“Hello.” said Treecko. Fennekin came up right after him.

“Bonjour monsieurs, comment allez vous?”

Rowlet and Chespin stared at her, uncomprehending. But they were very excited that there were more survivors. Chespin would’ve jumped for joy, if he could feel his legs.

The two new survivors noticed his condition.

“What happened to your legs?” Treecko asked.

“I was out collecting resources in the Creepvine Forest when I got attacked by some scary fish with glowing green bumps all over it. I got away, but after that my legs started hurting a lot and I can’t really walk now.”

“Do you think it was poisonous?” Treecko asked.

Fennekin decided that she should help Rowlet take care of Chespin.

“Maybe. That’s not out of the question.” Rowlet said.

“Does that mean I’m going to die?” Chespin asked fearfully.

They were all unsure. None of them wanted to stress him out.

Rowlet spoke up. “Maybe, but let's not count on it. There’s no guarantee that it’s poison.”

Chespin didn’t look too reassured. Fennekin had an idea.

“What if we scan him? Maybe the PDA will have un peu informatique?”

“What does that mean?” Chespin asked.

“A little information.” Treecko answered.

“Oh.”

“We don’t have a scanner.”

“That’s okay. We’ll bring you back to our work-in-progress habitat on the island. Piplup has a scanner.”

“How many more of you are there?” Rowlet asked.

“Quatre- “Four.” Treecko interrupted.

“Sorry.” Fennekin said.

“We should probably get going. The faster we find out what’s wrong with me, the better.” Chespin said.

“Sounds like a good idea. Fennekin, do you think we have enough resources?”

“It is probably enough.”

“Okay. Can you guys carry Chespin for me? I can’t swim very well.” Rowlet said.

“Yeah. We can do it.” Treecko said.

Rowlet put on some protective wing coverings made of silicone rubber. He inwardly thanked Chespin for gathering those seed pods before he was attacked. He followed the rest of the group into the ocean. He wished he had a Seamoth or Cyclops. He loved piloting submarines, and it would make it so much easier to get around. The Prawn Suit might be a little difficult for him. Wings weren’t the best for its controls. Working in the construction section of the ship had taught him how to pilot the first two though. He didn’t really understand why they needed the Cyclops, since it was only a water vehicle, and they were never supposed to go near any water, but oh well. He highly doubted there were any pieces of the submarines left anyway.   
Popplio and Turtwig sat for a while trying to figure out how two send a signal on a PDA. They then realized that was impossible. They just decided they would wait after that. After a bit of awkward silence, one of the groups that had left came back. Piplup and Oshawott popped up out of the ocean and quickly swam to the sand. They then unloaded all of their resources into one of the small caves that lined the walls of the cove. After that, they waited with Popplio and Turtwig for the other group.

“Did you guys ever manage to send a signal?” Oshawott asked.

“No, we couldn’t figure out how. I think we need a radio, but the only one on the island is in Turtwig’s old lifepod and that’s broken.”

“Oh. I didn’t really think about that. How’re we gonna make anything out of these resources without a fabricator?”

They all stared blankly for a second. 

“I guess we’ll have to go back to one of our lifepods again and make a habitat builder.” Piplup said.

Just then, the other group of survivors came back. But there were more people with them then they had left with.

Piplup raised an eyebrow. “We have more mouths to feed.”

Popplio, on the other hand, was excited. “Treecko! You found more!”

After they all pulled off their masks, they introduced the two newcomers.

“This is Rowlet and Chespin. Piplup, we would like to use your scanner.” Treecko said.

Piplup looked suspicious. “Why do you need my scanner?”

Rowlet rolled his eyes. He grabbed Piplup’s scanner out of his arms. “It’s to scan Chespin. Chill out.”

Piplup glared at him.

Holding the scanner up to Chespin revealed that he had some type of infection. It said that it was starting to progress. Out of curiosity, Rowlet scanned himself too. Once again, it said he was infected. There were only trace amounts of the bacteria in his system, though. A little worried, he went around and scanned everyone. The result was always the same. Chespin seemed to have it the worst. Piplup was annoyed and ripped their scanner out of Rowlet’s wings. 

“We might have a problem.” Rowlet said.

“What is it?” Popplio asked.

“We all have some type of disease.”


	8. Explosion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More survivors meet up, one more goes, and a huge explosion rocks their world.

Charmander was sitting in the lifepod, waiting for someone to finally come back. He was really bored. They had left this morning to explore and gather resources. Charmander was supposed to find a way to create some type of suit he could wear so that he could swim in the water. The only problem was, he didn’t know how to design blueprints. Cooking didn’t at all amount to creating clothes. So, he wasn’t really able to do much. Maybe getting out of the lifepod for a bit would make him feel better. He climbed out of the lifepod and sat down. The Aurora looked pretty unstable, and it was making lots of weird noises. The PDA’s had notified them a couple of times that its Drive Core was degrading, and there seemed to be more fire on it than normal. Besides the Aurora, there was only endless sky and ocean. There were some really low hanging clouds in some areas, and Charmander wondered why that was. He waited for a bit. And waited, and waited…

“They’re never coming back, are they.” He said to himself.

What if they had died or something? What would he do? He looked down at the water. That would probably be a better way out than starving to death. The radio below him received a signal. It played automatically. Charmander couldn’t hear it, though. He started counting down, hoping that once he got to zero, they’d be back.

“Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five-”

Something else was counting down. 

He turned around just in time to watch the Aurora explode.

The front of the ship blew off, flying into the distance. A shock wave shook the area, and Charmander was blown from the top of the lifepod.

It took him a second to register what had happened, but then he knew he was dead. He dropped straight into the ocean.

-or he would’ve, if something hadn't grabbed him.  
His first instinct was to scream, but the green vines that were holding him above the water prevented him from making too much sound. He could only really watch as whatever it was carried him back to the lifepod and set him down. The green vines quickly retracted, and then something entered the lifepod from below.  
Charmander was freaking out. What was that? Why did it save him? Was it going to eat him now? It was climbing up the ladder. Oh nonononono- It was Bulbasaur. Oh right, he had these cool vine things he could use as arms. Wait. Bulbasaur!

“Oh my gosh! Bulbasaur! You’re alive! And Chikorita! Man the time on this planet just got so much better! And you saved me! Thank you so much!” He said while running over and hugging both of them.

Bulbasaur looked relieved. “We were actually going to go to the Aurora, but then we heard that explosion and saw you above the water. I thought for a second that I hadn’t caught you fast enough.” 

“Well thank goodness you did! Oh I missed you guys! I thought you were dead!”

“As did we. I’m so happy to see you again Charmy! Chikorita said.

“How have you survived this long? You can’t go in the water, so how have you been eating and drinking?” Bulbasaur asked.

“Oh! Yeah! I’m not alone! I came down here with Squirtle, and then Totodile, Litten, and Mudkip found us! They all went off to explore and find resources earlier.”

“Oh that kind of makes sense. Have you seen them since then?”

Charmander shook his head. “No, but I’m sure they’re fine. What were you guys doing over here?”

“We were swimming to the Aurora!” Chikorita said.

“Good thing we weren’t over there.” Bulbasaur replied.

Their PDAs gave them the recipe for the radiation suit.

“Cool! Hey now we can make our own diving suits! It’d probably be a good idea to make these, with the massive amounts of radiation in the water.” Chikorita said.

“Yeah probably…” Charmander had an idea. Maybe, since he finally had a recipe for a dive suit, he could use that for his special design! If there were anything that could be modified to fit him, it would be a recipe that was already really close. “What does it take to make one?”

“It says we need two lead and two fiber mesh. Seems pretty easy, but we need to find something to make the fiber mesh with.” Bulbasaur said. 

“I think I have an idea. Hey guys, did you swim by any plants with big glowing yellow pods?”

Bulbasaur and Chikorita nodded.

“Mudkip grabbed some of those earlier for me, and said when I’d asked him later that they were on these kelp plants. Do you think that we could use that stuff to make them?” 

“Maybe. They do seem pretty fibrous. We can go get some.” Chikorita said.

“Thank you guys! I guess we’ll need six. And you guys have enough lead, right?”

“Yep. We’re good there. Hopefully the fabricator somehow makes the lead not deadly. We’ll have it on for a while…” Bulbasaur said. 

“We’ll be fine. Be back in a bit!” Chickorita said before jumping into the water. Bulbasaur followed her. Just like that, Charmander was alone again. Hopefully it wouldn’t take them too long.

Tepig really didn’t feel good. He had a massive headache and was extremely hungry. He had tried to ration out his supplies, but his nature had caused him to eat all of the food too quickly. He had lucked out and gotten an extra bottle of water, so he still had some of that left, but he was definitely dehydrated. He needed to get out of here, but he was too deep underwater to escape! He didn’t want to die like this! Nobody had come after he sent his signal… and he had gotten a few other rescue signals back… Was he the only one left? He really hoped not. The puddle on the floor had gotten deeper. Tepig had tried to patch the hole before it got too bad, but it still seemed to be leaking. Maybe he should just swim for it. He looked out of the top hatch, which was actually on the right in front of him. His lifepod had landed on its side. Something was out there. He could hear some strange electronic sounds and see a weird blue light. Curiosity overtook him and he pressed his face against the glass. A large, strange looking fish opened a hole in the water! It looked different on the other side, too. Lots of green kelp. The sun was lighting up the water easily. The water down here was dark. 500 meters of water made it difficult for the light to pass through. The fish then swam through the hole to the other side. Tepig had an idea. He pushed the hatch open and swam through the hole before it closed. The water pressure went from crushing to unnoticeable in seconds. He quickly pulled himself to the surface. He was alive! In much shallower water! He didn’t even have to hold his breath for that long! Going back underwater, the purple thing had disappeared. Maybe it teleported somewhere else? Man this planet was weird. Tepig still really didn’t know what he was gonna do, but at least he wouldn’t drown.

Their expedition had decided to look for the lost lifepod. They hadn’t known what was in between them and its location, but it turned out to be pretty interesting. One area had huge mushrooms, and the other was filled with large purple bush looking things that glowed in the dark. The mushrooms had been pretty peaceful, but the bush area was very dangerous. Of course, that’s where the lifepod had landed. Electric Ampeels and vicious Bone Sharks patrolled the area, and the four of them had to make sure to avoid them. When that huge explosion had happened, they thought they were dead, but it turned out to be alright. It did scare away some of the fish though, and they used that opportunity to check out the lifepod. It was pretty clear that whoever had been in there was dead. There was a big hole that looked like it had been ripped out of the side of the lifepod, and the only thing inside was an abandoned PDA. Litten and Mudkip explored the thermal vents around the lifepod while Totodile and Squirtle figured out that this had been Froakie’s lifepod, based on the fact that the signal that he sent led here. There were no traces of him anywhere, besides the PDA that had been lying in there. The four of them decided to leave the area not long after, because the radiation was getting dangerous. On their swim back, they discovered a huge piece of the Aurora that had fallen off that they had somehow missed before. They ignored it though, because of the radiation. Now, they were finally back to the Safe Shallows, and couldn’t be more grateful. Hopefully Charmander was okay.


End file.
